Email marketing is a very useful tool for a managed provider. It helps you find new potential customers, keep in touch with existing ones and it’s affordable. You already have your leads base and they might’ve also signed for your email updates and send-outs. All you need to do now is compose an email and press the "send" button.
Sounds easy, right?
In reality, email marketing is far more complicated. In this article, we're going to discuss the essential techniques that a managed service provider should learn in order to create effective email campaigns. First, we will talk about some theoretical approaches and then add some day-to-day tactics that you may start implementing into your business immediately.
Behavioural Email Marketing
The key to effective email campaign is personalization.
The first thing you may think of is to include a person's name in the email. It may be an effective tactics in some cases, but most likely it will have the opposite effect. This technique is used everywhere and people are simply tired of receiving dozens of "dear Mr.Smith" emails every day.
Be more creative and use more delicate targeting. Focus on ensuring that the form field merge is accurate, but include actual content that could be worth reading. Your clients are choosing you not because you remember their names, but because of the technical excellence and support you provide.
Track what people have been doing lately on your website, gather the metrics of their behavior, set up triggers for all important actions, and send automated emails that will guide them to information they need.
Here are several types of emails you may consider:
- Transactional email. Money is a serious topic for everyone. Make sure that your clients receive transactional emails right after they make a payment. This will help them feel confident and decrease their worries regarding their payments.
- Recommendation email. This type of email works best with clients who have been using your services for a while. Ask your clients for feedback and if they have issues. Send additional materials that might be helpful.
Responsive Email Marketing
Internet traffic has already shifted towards mobile devices. So, the responsive design should be if not the first, at least the second thing you think about when creating a new campaign.
IT-shops should pay specific attention to this part of their B2B email marketing strategy and make sure that all emails have a responsive design, and include the web-pages and materials to which the emails lead. One of the easiest things to do is to lose the attention of your readers because of a lack of mobile-support.
Email Marketing Tactics
1. Subject line is the king: Pay specific attention to the subject of your email. It must be short and catchy. Remember, every second of a user's attention counts, and if your subject doesn't interest them from the very first words, you will lose them.
2. Track all the metrics: How many emails were delivered, how many of them were opened, how many recipients clicked on a link in the email, and how many of them finally ordered your services? Once you have these metrics, you'll be able to calculate your funnel of sales, measure the efficiency of your email marketing strategy, and take the necessary action in case it is ineffective.
3. Segment your recipients: Make your emails accurately hit the target audience by segmenting your email base. What have these people been doing lately on your website? Did they investigate the page with a specific service that you offer? Were they attracted by a special promo? Gather these metrics and send the emails that will surely catch their attention.
4. Bring them real value: People receive tons of promos in their mailboxes everyday. The free gifts and discounts don't have the effect they did in the past.
Concentrate on what value and what information you can give them in your emails. Give away some free content, a short e-book, or an article that is not available anywhere else.
5. The best time to schedule your campaign: Sending emails during prime time is the worst thing to do. It's just like purchasing TV advertising for Saturday evening: the prices are high, the content is overwhelming, the audience is fed up, and the results are low.
It is better to select evening hours or weekends. The number of emails sent in this timeframe is much lower and your messages will have a greater chance to be read.
Conclusion
These are the basics of email marketing strategy and tactics that managed service providers may use to get the most from their customer base.
Learn Real-Life MSP Stories
Want to hear some real-life MSPs about how to start and manage the business? Check out our new weekly podcast - The MSP Voice.
Alexander Negrash is director of marketing at CloudBerry Lab. Read more CloudBerryLab blogs here.
